Allerton Park

Allerton Park

Large mansion built in 1848-51, possibly incorporating elements of an earlier house dating to 1721. Designed by George Martin of Baker Street, London, for the 18th Lord Stourton, and built in Neo-Jacobean style. The building is constructed in coursed gritstone with grey slate and lead roof.

The composition comprises a tall two-storey main block containing a central open hall that rises through the centre and is lit by a third lantern storey, with a lower three-storey range extending to the east and north, creating a courtyard on the north-east side. The building features a plinth, moulded first-floor and eaves bands, a crenellated parapet, shaped gables and dormers with pinnacles, and tall stacks.

The south entrance front displays a three-bay projecting centre incorporating a projecting port-cochère with a 3½-storey tower above, flanked by single gabled bays with ground-floor square bay windows and octagonal corner turrets. The west front has a three-bay projecting central section with a central two-storey bow window. The north front shows a projecting three-gabled central section with a slightly projecting central bay flanked by octagonal turrets, with three glazed circular openings on the ground floor and three windows above. Square bay windows occupy the ground floor on either side, and a central clerestory tower projects above the skyline with curved battlements and pinnacles.

Interior spaces include a vast three-storey central hall lit by the clerestory tower, containing Perpendicular windows with stained glass and a fine hammer-beam wooden roof. Single two-storey halls to the east and west flank the central hall, both lit by glazed roofs. The eastern hall contains a large staircase protruding through an arch into the central hall. All three halls feature Perpendicular panelling extending to a canted gallery at first-floor level, with crocketed ogee surrounds to the first-floor arches. Tall entrance passages to the north and south are panelled in Perpendicular style and topped with hammer-beam roofs. The dining room in the north-east corner displays very fine panelling by Benjamin Baud, a pendant stucco ceiling, and a fine fireplace. The halls contain good brass torchères, now converted to electricity. Other ground-floor rooms include a saloon on the west side, a library, and a billiard room with original light fitting above the table.

The previous house on this site was rebuilt by the Duke of York from a house constructed in 1721 by the Honourable Richard Arundel (Surveyor of the King's Works) for himself. The Duke of York purchased the estate from Viscount Galway in 1786 and occupied it with the Prince of Wales until 1789, when the house and estate were sold to Colonel Thornton, who renamed it Thornville Royal. An illustration of this former house shows a 'chapel room and chapel' which remain at the west end of the present chapel. In 1805 Charles Philip, 16th Lord Stourton, acquired the property. In 1851-52 Charles, 18th Lord Stourton, had the house rebuilt. Nearly all the brick materials from the former buildings were said to have been reused in the new house. A wing of solid construction remained on the north side during construction of the new house; it is possible this was later converted and encased as a service wing. A mound of rubble to the north-west of the present building is thought to represent debris from the demolition of the 18th-century house.